Publish date: 2024-07-08
- Gevin Allen Prince, now 16, has been charged as an adult in his great-grandmother's August 2011 slaying
- His 50-year-old grandmother also cut in attack
- Suspect shot at police with pellet gun before arrest and they had to use a flash-bang to distract him
- Not the first time he attacked a family member with a sword
By Daily Mail Reporter
Updated: 17:28 EST, 7 February 2013
A teenager with Asperger's syndrome was sentenced to life in jail for killing his great-grandmother with a Samurai sword.
Gevin Prince, who killed his 77-year-old relative, was deemed mentally fit to stand trial still but found guilty but mentally ill.
Gevin, now 16, fatally attacked Mary Joan Gibbs inside her Georgia home in August 2011 after a fight when she told him to stop playing video games.
Facing attack: Gevin Prince, 16, left, was found guilty of killing his great-grandmother Mary Joan Gibbs, 77, pictured right, with a sword in August of 2011
His grandmother Laura Prince, 50, was also injured in the attack but has since recovered from her injuries, and she actually hugged him in the courtroom on Wednesday, according to The Atlanta Journal Constitution.
'It will be OK, we'll get through this,' she told him.
The boy will eligible for parole in 30 years.
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ShareLaura Prince was raising her grandson and lived with her mother, Mrs Gibbs.
During the trial, the jury was told that this was not the first time that the teenager attacked relatives, but both she and the boy's great-grandmother had covered for him in previous police reports.
Police said the fatal August attack was the third time in the last three months the teen had been arrested in 2011. They had already confiscated another sword off him.
Gevin suffers from Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism, that contributed to what would become his uncontrollable behaviour over the years.
Reality check: Seen during his arraignment after the brutal attack, the now 16-year-old was charged as an adult in his great-grandmother's death
Child's play: Police said that the boy attacked his great-grandmother with the full-sized sword after she told him to stop playing video games on his computer
Adding to the blame, the boy's uncle David Cook said that the murder should not have occurred since the troubled boy should never have had access to the swords.
There was a collection of 30 swords in the home that belonged to a different cousin in the home.
'This was the most preventable murder in the history of the world,' Mr Cook said in court.
'Gevin, you didn’t do this by yourself. You shouldn’t have been in that house. The swords and knives shouldn’t have been in that house.'
When police arrived to the home on Spring Ridge Drive in Douglasville, Prince was outside holding both the sword and a BB gun before firing at officers and hitting patrol cars.
After allegedly chasing two neighbours with the sword he was additionally slapped with two assault charges.
District Attorney David McDade said those neighbours, both juveniles, were not physically injured.
Charges: It took a Douglas County jury 30 minutes to find the boy competent to stand trial, his judge pictured during his arraignment on charges of malice murder and four counts of aggravated assault
Mr McDade said: 'They saw what happened. The psychological impact is immeasurable.'
Deputies showed a lot of restraint and did not shoot the teen, CBS Atlanta reported. Instead, they distracted him with an explosive device.
'It got his attention,' said Sheriff Miller. 'We sent a K-9 unit in and he hit the K-9 dog with the butt of the pellet gun. At that point, we tased him then took him into custody.'
'We've arrested him on two different occasions,' said Sheriff Miller. 'Once in June where he had another sword, which is in evidence. This is not the same sword. He cut his grandmother on the foot with it that time.'
Police arrested him again on July 29.
Attack: Officers are seen at the murder scene that also injured the boy's 55-year-old grandmother who barricaded herself in a bedroom
'We almost had to hog tie him to not hurt him,' said Sheriff Miller, adding that each time deputies arrested the teen, they took him to the hospital for evaluations and doctors released him.
'Obviously he was a danger to himself, a danger to his family and a danger to this community,' said Sheriff Miller.
Pam Mayercik lives across the street from the family. She told CBS Atlanta she often saw the teen in the neighbourhood.
'I used to wave to the kid all the time,' she said. 'He seemed like he was a little bit different. He's just a little kid with glasses and kind of shy.'
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